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“I have something that needs to be said as well.” Barbara stood and looked at everyone in the room, one by one. She was an admirable woman, someone who did not beat around the bush or mince words. “My husband and I have talked about this a great deal. And I spoke to Miriam about it as well.” Miriam Grandin was the matriarch of that family, in her late eighties. She was the widow of Victor Grandin Sr., who had died nine months ago, right before the question of the oil rights had come up. “Victor Sr. and Augustus Lattimore, my father-in-law, may have led the families well for decades, but they were misguided in many of their actions. What they did to cover up the birth of Ashley and her true family lineage was disgraceful. And every last person in this room has had to suffer because of it in one way or another. We can’t go back and undo the past, but if we acknowledge it, we can heal. I think Heath has laid out a road map for us to follow, and I think we all need to thank him for that.”
Heath was so choked up he could hardly see straight. The last thing he’d ever imagined was that anyone would thank him for anything. “I don’t need the praise, but I do appreciate it. Really.”
Barbara looked around the room one more time. “Can we toast to it? Because I think we could all use a drink.”
Ruby was trying to finish up the last of the painting in her new closet, but she kept making mistakes. “Dammit,” she muttered as she once again slipped with the roller and left a big smudge on the ceiling. “I’m going to have so much touch-up to do. It’s ridiculous.” Of course, it wasn’t entirely a case of being clumsy. She was on edge. Chelsea had called her that morning to let Ruby know that Heath was having the Grandins and the Lattimores over to the Thurston ranch today so they could discuss a plan to get the county attorney to drop the case against the families.
Ruby could only imagine what might be going on. Screaming. Yelling. Throwing of sharp objects. Funnily enough, as much as Heath had been blamed for all of this, she didn’t see him doing those things. No, she imagined him sitting at one end of one of the couches in his living room, patiently listening and waiting until there was a break in the conversation so that he could tell everyone why they were wrong. He was very good at arguing. So much so that Ruby had thought he might have a future as a lawyer.
She felt bad about everything that had happened. She knew that she’d been particularly hard on him when they’d had their argument in his driveway after the dustup at the Rancher’s Daughter. Even so, nothing she’d said was untrue. She did need to move forward, and everything in Heath’s actions had said that he wasn’t ready to do that. But she still wondered if maybe this had been a stumbling block for him. That although there was a difference between what he did and what he said, it didn’t change what he wanted. There was a very good chance that his desire to move ahead was real, but he hadn’t known the right way to go about it.
The many messages he’d left for her had hinted at all of that. As reluctant as she’d been to take his calls, she did listen to the things he had to say. More than once. Sometimes she listened to them right before she went to bed, if only to have the comfort of his voice in the dark. He did sound sad. And he did sound sincere. But something was keeping her from reaching out to him. And she wasn’t sure what it was.
She finished up the last of the painting, then gathered her supplies and went into her laundry room to wash things up in the utility tub. With that done, she went next to the living room to look at the clothes she’d piled on the sofa. Some of these things probably needed to be donated to the thrift store in town. As she sifted through the garments, she came across the dress that Heath had bought for her to wear to the party at the TCC. And it really struck her exactly how generous it had been of him to buy it for her. What was between them was so new at that point, and although there had been physical intimacy, she had stomped on the brakes, which he’d taken in stride. He had an immense capacity to understand and to be giving, even when the world had not always shown him those positive traits. When she’d told him that he was a good man, she’d been right. And she’d meant it.
The sound of Ruby’s cell phone ringing took her by surprise. She flipped through the pile of clothes until she found the device. The caller ID said it was Chelsea. “Hey. Is everything okay? Did anyone end up in the hospital?” Ruby didn’t want to sound melodramatic, but considering the outlandish things that had happened in the last month, it wasn’t completely out of the question.
“No. Actually, everything is great. I can hardly believe I’m saying that, but it’s true. Heath and Nolan are in the other room with my dad and mom, and Barbara and Ben Lattimore. They’re chatting up a storm and having a great time.”
Ruby struggled to understand how such a dramatic shift could have taken place. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story, but the short version is that Heath worked his butt off to come up with a way out of this. And he apologized to everyone in a very beautiful way. He was so humble, and, well, he just basically proved to us all what an incredible man he is.”
Ruby was so thrilled to hear this news, but it came at a price. “I feel horrible. He’s been trying to reach me all week and I haven’t called him back.”
“He told us. You didn’t want to talk to him?”
“It’s not that. Actually, I think I just needed time to process my feelings. I’m a work in progress. There’s not much more I can say than that.”
“We all are, aren’t we?”
“True. Very true.” Ruby smiled, but it faded quickly. “And there’s one other thing. I told him that I love him and he didn’t say it back. It’s hard to recover from that.”
Chelsea’s end of the line was quiet for a moment. “Can I tell you something about the Thurston men? They aren’t great at admitting to their feelings. At least, not right away. I have zero doubt that he cares about you a lot. And that he wants to see you. I really think his actions today were motivated so much by his feelings for you. So, maybe give him another chance?”
Ruby really wanted to, but would it work? She wasn’t sure. “I should at least talk to him, right?”
“Yes. Get your butt over here and talk to him. I know he would love to see you and it would absolutely make his day. It’ll probably make his whole life.”
“I just finished a painting job. I need to get cleaned up. It’ll probably be an hour or so.”
“From the sound of the laughter coming from the other room, I don’t think he’s going anywhere. Just get here when you can.”
Ruby smiled, happy to have a way forward. “I will. And thank you, Chelsea. I really appreciate you reaching out.”
“I like you a lot, Ruby. I hope you and Heath can sort it out. Then we can hopefully go shopping at the Rancher’s Daughter and not have anything horrible happen.”
“That sounds like fun.” Ruby said goodbye to Chelsea, hung up the phone and headed straight for her bathroom. She showered as quickly as she could, nervous anticipation running through her body at full speed. She hoped that Heath would talk to her. She hoped that he would give her a chance to apologize, and hopefully that would mean a second chance at them being a couple. She dressed in jeans and the same sweater she’d been wearing the day they met. It was a sentimental choice, harking back to the beginning. As much as she’d told him it was important to move forward, it was okay to look back sometimes. Hair and makeup took a bit longer than she would have liked, but she wanted to look good. A final spritz of perfume and she was ready to go.
She stopped at the front door to pull on her boots, but something caught her eye as she glimpsed the living room—the bar cabinet. Lucas’s bourbon collection was in there. Heath was its rightful owner, as far as she was concerned. Lucas would have wanted a true connoisseur to have it. She ran back to the guest room, grabbed an empty cardboard box and started carefully packing up the bottles. With that complete, she felt as though she could leave.
With a click of her fob, she raised the tailgate on her SUV and was sliding the box into the back when she heard a car kicking up gravel on her road. She turned and saw Heath’s big black truck coming toward her. She was more than a little confounded. Chelsea had said he was busy socializing at the house. When had he decided to leave? And why had he decided to come here?
He parked right alongside her car and hopped out. “Please don’t tell me you’re moving, Ruby. Why are you loading boxes into your car?”
A grin crossed her face, and she sighed for good measure. He was so handsome it was worth marking the moment. “Not moving. I was bringing you a gift.”
He stepped closer and glanced in the back of her car, then looked at her with pure astonishment on his face. “The bourbon collection? For me?”
